Anthony Weaver – December 26, 2024
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Thursday, December 26, 2024
Defensive Coordinator Anthony Weaver
(I know Head Coach Mike McDaniel has told us that CB Kendall Fuller is unlikely to play this week. You obviously have options with DB Elijah Campbell in a three-safety look, you have CB Siran Neal. But it’s primarily since CB Cam Smith… it’s obviously been CB Storm Duck primarily. What has made you guys want to invest more time in him as opposed to say, someone else on the roster or finding a veteran on the street?) – “I think it’s just a testament to the kid and his consistency. He has continued to develop all throughout camp and throughout the season and he’s just a guy that I think his teammates and both teammates and coaches alike trust. That’s not to take away from some of the other guys that are on the roster, too. I have a tremendous amount of faith in Ethan Bonner, if he’s out there and he’s on the field. When Siran Neal is in there, I have confidence in him, but in terms of the outside corner position, I think Storm (Duck) has played his way into that role.”
(I’m going to name DT Zach Sieler the Palm Beach Post “Most Outstanding Dolphin of the Year” even though there’s two weeks left. That is just my personal choice. How would you describe Zach in one word?) – “That’s difficult. One word. He is determined. I think that’s the word just because he’s one of those guys you just think about his kind of path to the league, getting cut from Baltimore, had every opportunity to kind of go the other way and say, ‘you know what? Maybe this isn’t for me, this isn’t my path.’ But throughout all adversity he’s faced in this sport, he has shown just a resilience and a true determined attitude to persevere. So that’s why.”
(If you had a 16-year-old four-star defensive lineman at Christmas dinner there and what would you tell him about DT Zach Sieler? Like “hey, watch this” or “know this”…?) – “I would tell him – one, if he was at dinner, I would make sure he was around me every day so he could see more of the ins and outs of what Zach does, because I think it’s truly his day-to-day operation with how he approaches all aspects of work which is why he has the success he has on Sundays.”
(S Jordan Poyer, we saw the play with 49ers WR Deebo Samuel there toward the goal line. I think 49ers TE George Kittle also got him earlier in the game, but on both of those it looked to me like Poyer came in with bad form, head down. Is that the case and if it is, do you talk to him about that? Or do you just think “he’s a vet, he knows what he did wrong”?) – “I think to single out Jordan (Poyer) in those two particular instances, that’s rough to me. It’s not like the two guys you mentioned – Deebo Samuel and George Kittle – are like me and Brian Duker who’s going to be up here later. (laughter) Those two guys are obviously physical players and they make a lot of people miss tackles. I watched the game yesterday. I’m sure (Texans Head Coach) DeMeco (Ryans) on the other side is saying, ‘hey, we’ve got to contain Lamar Jackson. We’ve got to keep him in the pocket, guys.’ You go into it with those mindsets, but there’s some great players out there and they force you to sometimes, unfortunately, look bad on defense. So yeah, could ‘Po’ (Jordan Poyer) run his feet, could he go lower, could he make sure he wrap up; yeah, we can talk about that till we’re blue in the face. It’s a bunch of coach speak, but those guys are going to make plays, too, and we’ve got to make sure we get more people to the ball so we don’t have those one-on-one situations.”
(With a guy like Browns WR Jerry Jeudy who has not had the production early in his career, gets to Cleveland and takes off – we knew he was talented as a first-round pick, but now the production matches the talent. What’s changed for him in Cleveland to make him so productive, do you think?) – “That’s difficult to say. When I’ve seen him in the past – haven’t played against him a bunch – but you always saw the talent there in terms of short-area quickness, his speed, his ability to catch the ball, to go up and get it, his instincts. He has all that. So if anything has changed, I think it’s probably just more opportunities, if anything, for him. Just quarterbacks having willingness to throw to him and give him opportunities to make those plays because the skill set and talent has always been there.”
(Are you optimistic about having both LB Anthony Walker Jr. and LB Jordyn Brooks available on Sunday?) – “Yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see. I know those guys are certainly working through bumps and bruises. Probably feel – kind of guessing on both, but I’m betting on the warriors that they are in the hopes that they’ll both be out there.”
(And with backups, is there position versatility with LB Duke Riley and with LB Tyrel Dodson where we saw obviously Duke replaced Jordyn; could Tyrel have gone in there or do you like each guy backing up those two guys?) – “Since Tyrel (Dodson) has been here, he’s focused primarily on the Mike position, on playing middle backer. Now could he play Will, absolutely. The kid is incredibly smart, has high ‘FBI’ (football intelligence). Duke (Riley) has played them both, so we have a tremendous amount of confidence going out there and execute – really, he’s played some Sam backer for us, too, so you talk about just a multitude of skillsets for him. He’s played all over so we trust him in whatever backer role he happens to be in.”
(I’d like to get a defensive coordinator’s perspective on this. RB De’Von Achane is setting all kinds of records now, not just running the ball, but as a receiver. I know there aren’t a lot of players who can do what he can do in this league, but when you go against someone like that, what sort of headaches does it cause for a defensive coordinator that other plays would not?) – “He’s an absolute nightmare and I imagine – again, I’m not trying to put this tag on him and he has a long way to go to reach this – but I imagine coordinators were having the same conversation when they were facing Marshall Faulk. A guy who from the backfield could definitely hurt you, could run with physicality, could hit you on the edge but then when you split him out, particularly if you’re matched up against the backer, you have no chance. So when you’re facing guys like him, you’ve got to be cognizant of where he’s at every play and it’s probably going to force you to play more zone than you want to.”
(What are your memories of Head Coach Mike McDaniel 10 years ago when you guys were together in Cleveland where you return this week?) – “Oh man, we were a lot colder than we are now, but Mike (McDaniel) was as hard a worker from a coaching standpoint as I’ve ever seen. Even now, he still gets here super early, stays super late, probably doesn’t stay as late as he once did because he now has a daughter. It’s important that he gets home to spend time with her, but even back then – I don’t want to say younger coach at that point, he was probably 10 years into his NFL career – but I saw very early like when we talked football, he saw it differently. I would always leave every conversation with him thinking, ‘oh man, he gets it. He gets the big picture wise.’ And then when he would talk to his players in the wide receiver room, you could just tell they had a genuine appreciation and love for who he was and how he taught. So yeah man, I love him and even back then I kind of knew this was coming.”
(The decision with LB Chop Robinson to have him play, it’s obviously been substantial playing time. You’ve gotten great production. Less than LB Emmanuel Ogbah each week, is that because of a desire to have LB Quinton Bell in on run-heavy downs? Is it you need to see more from Chop? What goes into that?) – “I think it’s just making sure all those guys see the field because we think they can impact the game in a multitude of ways. Chop (Robinson), I think again, the more you play him, he’s going to be efficient at everything – run game, pass game, all of it. I think he’s really gotten to the point where he can do that now. But (Emmanuel) Ogbah is a bigger body and sometimes you want those bigger bodies out there to set a more firm edge and do things of that nature. You have ‘Q Bell’ (Quinton Bell) who’s probably a little bit more proficient in some of the things we do from a pass coverage standpoint when he’s out there. So they all have a multitude of skill sets and we just kind of try to blend them in based on what we think we’re going to get schematically from the offense in that particular time.”
(And with LB Cam Goode, how do you make a decision on how much to incorporate him defensively? Obviously he hasn’t played in a year, doesn’t have a ton of defensive snaps on film, body of work.) – “I tell you what; obviously I didn’t know much about Cam (Goode) coming in, and I knew he was battling through the injury. You watch some limited snaps from a year ago and you saw something there, but you knew he was still a fairly young player, particularly as an edge defender. But man, he has a skill set and he works so hard that you can easily see how that will translate to success in this league. I think particularly once he gets a full offseason of just training his body and getting bigger, he can be even more impactful. But when he’s out there right now, we have all the faith in him to go out there and execute the jobs we need him to.”
(How has LB Bradly Chubb responded to the unfortunate reality that he will not be able to participate this season?) – “I think we were all cautiously optimistic that he’d get out there and play this year, particularly with the severity of the injury he had. It was incredibly encouraging to see him go out there these past three weeks and play, and I hope that provides confidence in what he can be when he does come back. He’s probably disappointed just because he has put in the work, but again, I hope that he feels confident that when he does return, he’ll be everything he was and more.”
(I wanted to ask you about your defense. Obviously, we talk to you all year. You always say points is the No. 1 barometer. You’re No. 8 in yards allowed, you’re No. 10 in points allowed; but yet, you guys don’t get many sacks and you don’t get much turnovers. Why do you think you’re having this level of success you’re having as a unit without the big play production?) – “I think it’s just that. I think whatever group of 11 you see out there, you’re doing everything possible to play with effort and energy and play together. And when you have that, yeah, sometimes you don’t make the big plays and you don’t have sacks and some things of that nature. I think the sack stats are a little bit overrated personally, but turnovers we certainly have to increase and some of that sometimes I think is just the way the ball bounces. Even last game, I think we probably had like, four or five pick opportunities that if the ball is a foot either way, we get those. So I think it’s a credit both to the players and the coaching staff of buying into both culturally what we’re trying to instill and then schematically going out there and playing with again the effort, the energy, the physicality, the tenacity, which is why those numbers are where they are. We certainly need to increase the turnovers, for sure.”
(The 12 men on the field – I thought you guys were off but maybe not, but my question is should that be a literal interpretation of the rule? Like you guys weren’t going to get an advantage. Should it be a literal interpretation or should there be some leeway?) – “I think it should be as literal as when the clock hits zero and it’s not a delay of game. So to me, those fall under the same barometer.”
(Should that be a reviewable play because I mean…?) – “He should have to look. (laughter) I hear that all the time.”
(It was mentioned covering Browns WR Jerry Jeudy. What do you think of Browns TE David Njoku especially given the struggles this defense has had covering good tight ends?) – “I think he’s banged up a little bit, so he can take a week off. I’d understand. I get it. (laughter) But I’ve faced ‘Dave’ (David Njoku) now for a number of years, having to go against him twice a year in Baltimore and he’s a dynamic player. When the gets the ball in his hand, tremendous YAC – yards after catch, he can run through people and he’s a huge target down in the red zone. So for us in particular, is he going to have his catches in normal field, yeah, and we have to be cognizant of that, but particularly when they’re down in the red zone, we’ve got to make sure we try to take him away.”
(Earlier you mentioned LB Quinton Bell, I was curious because I’m looking at his snap counts. He played about 10 reps in October and since then has played almost 200 snaps. What has he done to earn that elevation of playing time?) – “Again, I think it’s just his development. He’s shown through work on the practice field that he can be trusted, not only to go out there and execute his job but execute at a high level and make plays. So he’s one of those guys that really early on when I got here, you could kind of see he’s another one of those guys you could see that just wasn’t going to be denied, and regards to where he fell on the depth chart, who was in front of him, he was going to earn his way onto that field whether that be on special teams or on defense. So that’s truly a testament to the kid and the work he’s put in.”
(What’s your role in the red challenge flag process? DT Benito Jones had the challenge last week, the play. Do they ask you what do you think or do you contribute a thought? How does that work?) – “I don’t have much contribution into it at all. That’s truly a decision that comes from Mike (McDaniel) and whoever he listens to on the other headset. So obviously in that situation as a defensive guy, I want to throw the flag, but in that moment, I’m not taking into account the big picture repercussions of losing a timeout.”
